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<h1><font color="#e00000">3 - Obtaining OpenBSD</font></h1>
<hr>
<p>
<h3>Table of Contents</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href= "#BuyCD"     >3.1 - Buying an OpenBSD CD set</a>
<li><a href= "#BuyTShirts">3.2 - Buying OpenBSD T-Shirts</a>
<li><a href= "#ISO"       >3.3 - Does OpenBSD provide an ISO image for
     download?</a>
<li><a href= "#FTP"       >3.4 - Downloading via FTP, HTTP or AFS</a>
<li><a href= "#GetCurrent">3.5 - Obtaining Current Source Code</a>
</ul>

<hr>

<p>
<a name= "BuyCD"></a>
<h2>3.1 - Buying an OpenBSD CD set</h2>

<p>
Purchasing an OpenBSD CD set is generally the best way to get started. Visit the 
ordering page to purchase your copy:
<a href= "../orders.html">OpenBSD ordering page</a>.

<p>
There are many good reasons to own an OpenBSD CD set:
<ul>
  <li>CD sales support ongoing development of OpenBSD.
  <li>Development of a multi-platform operating system requires constant 
      investment in equipment.
  <li>Your support in the form of a CD set purchase has a real impact on future
      development.
  <li>The CDs contains binaries (and source) for the most popular
      supported platforms.
  <li>The CDs are bootable on several platforms, and can be used to bootstrap
      a machine without a pre-existing installed operating system.
  <li>The CDs are useful for bootstrapping even if you choose to install a 
      snapshot.
  <li>Installing from CD is faster! Installing from CD preserves network
      connectivity resources.
  <li>OpenBSD CDs always come with very nice stickers. Your system isn't fully
      complete without these. You can only get these stickers by buying a CD
      set or donating hardware.
  <li>OpenBSD CD sets come with an assortment of useful and popular 
      <a href="faq15.html#PkgMgmt">packages</a>.
      The CD set is complete enough to bring up a full work and
      development environment without any network connection at all.
</ul>

<p>
If you're installing a release version of OpenBSD, you should use a 
official CD set.

<p>
<a name= "BuyTShirts"></a>
<h2>3.2 - Buying OpenBSD T-Shirts</h2>
<p>
Yes, OpenBSD has T-shirts for your wearing enjoyment. You can view
these at the <a href="../tshirts.html">OpenBSD T-shirts page</a>. 
Enjoy :)

<p>
<a name= "ISO"></a>
<h2>3.3 - Does OpenBSD provide an ISO image for download?</h2>
Starting with OpenBSD 4.2, for select platforms, yes!

<p>
Users of the alpha, amd64, hppa, i386, macppc, sparc and sparc64
platforms can now download and install ISO image which can be used to
create a CD-ROM that can boot and install all of OpenBSD.

<p>
Note, this ISO is <i>not</i> the same as the
<a href="../orders.html">official CD</a> set.
These images are for single platforms, and do not include any of the
pre-compiled <a href="faq15.html">packages</a>, stickers, or artwork
that the official CD set does. 

<p>
As before, however, ISO file installation is NOT the optimum
installation method for many people.
It is still usually faster and simpler to download the boot media and
then install just the portions needed.
However, for those who wish to do a number of installations, or can not
figure out how to drop ten files on a CD-ROM or set up a local FTP
server, ISOs are available.

<p>
The OpenBSD project does not make the ISO images used to master
the official CDs available for download.  The reason is simply
that we would like you to buy the CD sets to help fund ongoing
OpenBSD development. The official OpenBSD CD-ROM layout is copyright 
Theo de Raadt.  Theo does not permit people to redistribute images of the 
official OpenBSD CDs.  As an incentive for people to buy the CD set, some 
extras are included in the package as well (artwork, stickers etc).
<p>
Note that only the CD layout is copyrighted, OpenBSD itself is free. 
Nothing precludes someone else from downloading OpenBSD and making their
own CD.

<p>
For those that need a bootable CD for their system, bootdisk ISO images
<!-- XXXrelease -->
(named <tt>cd43.iso</tt>) are available for a number of platforms which
will then permit the rest of the system to be installed via FTP.  These
ISO images are only a few megabytes in size, and contain just the installation 
tools, not the actual file sets.

<p>
<a name= "FTP"></a>
<h2>3.4 - Downloading via FTP, HTTP or AFS</h2>

<p>
There are numerous international mirror sites offering FTP and HTTP access to
OpenBSD releases and snapshots. AFS access is also available. You should
always use the site nearest to you. Before you begin fetching a release
or snapshot, you may wish to use 
<a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=ping&amp;sektion=8">ping(8)</a>
and 
<a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=traceroute&amp;sektion=8">traceroute(8)</a>
to determine which mirror site is nearest to you and whether that
mirror is performing adequately. Of course, your OpenBSD release
CD is always closer than any mirror. Access information is here:

<p>
<a href= "../ftp.html">OpenBSD FTP page</a>.

<p>
<a name= "GetCurrent"></a>
<h2>3.5 - Obtaining Current Source Code</h2>

<p>
The source code for OpenBSD is freely redistributable and available at
no charge.
Generally the best way to get started with a current source tree is to
install the source from the most recent CD and then configure AnonCVS to
update it regularly. Information about AnonCVS, including how to set it
up, is available here:

<p>
<a href= "../anoncvs.html">OpenBSD AnonCVS page</a>. 

<p>
Another alternative is to get the source code from the web. You can
do that through cvsweb at: 

<a href= "http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/">http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/</a>.


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